ENN Hits The Road

Menu

Session 2: “Why Writing Still Matters”

I came to Chicago with a planned schedule of sessions that I wanted to attend. One of the sessions that particularly interested me was “Why Writing Still Matters.” I have to say though, it wasn’t as impressive as I was expecting. Jake Lowary of Austin Peay State University said a lot of great things, but most of them felt like just another day in class with Professor Janna Anderson. It was a lot about social media and keeping things private versus having things available to the public.

Lowary started the session with examples of bad writing, spelling and grammar posted on some of his own friends on their social media pages. He used those examples as a segue into the point of his presentation: the WRITING of cover letters, resumes, emails, social media posts and other things are still what get you jobs.

One of the points I will remember most from Lowary’s presentation is something that can be a grey area for me because I have been taught both ways. While some tell me that my social media shouldn’t have any personality to it what-so-ever and should be strictly based on professionalism, Lowary said, “Let your personality shine through on these things. It’s a big reason people will hire you.” Maybe some things will change for me on social media soon. Who knows?

Overall, a good idea for a session, and I still did take things from it. I just feel like it just didn’t live up to all of the expectations I had for it. What those were, maybe I don’t know. I just thought it would be more to do with writing for journalism and not for a job.